


An Afternoon at the Zoo

by Mithen



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Chocolate Box Treat, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 22:18:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5982616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevin Owens and Bayley like to sneak out and go to zoos together.  The weekend of Wrestlemania 31, they meet at the San Jose zoo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Afternoon at the Zoo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/gifts).



Kevin Owens looked around surreptitiously as he got off the bus, but he didn’t see anyone who seemed to recognize him. That was a relief--sometimes it was difficult to slip away unnoticed.

The San Jose sun was too warm, even in March, and he was sweaty and annoyed by the time he found the meeting place. But when he saw the person waiting for him at the gate of the Happy Hollow Zoo, he felt himself smiling. He couldn’t help it. He almost hated that he couldn’t help it, sometimes, but he couldn’t help it.

Bayley jumped in the air and waved once, grinning. With her ponytail tucked under a hoodie and with no makeup, probably even fans of NXT might pass her without realizing who she was, which was good because Kevin didn’t want anyone to catch the two of them together. Not, much as it pained him to admit it, for his own sake--people might find it strange that he was hanging out with Bayley, but it wasn’t going to _disappoint_ anyone. Bayley, on the other hand--

His thoughts were cut off as Bayley reached him, throwing her arms around him as if she didn’t even notice his sweatiness. She probably didn’t. “You came!” she said.

“I wasn’t going to miss a chance to see a different zoo,” he said. “We’ve been to the Orlando one so many times, a new one is great. And your childhood zoo, that’s always special.”

She gave him an almost shy look that made him want to fight someone for her, as if she couldn’t do it perfectly well herself. “It’s nothing spectacular,” she said. “Just the usual monkeys and stuff.”

He glared at her, which only made her grin. “There’s nothing ‘usual’ about monkeys. Monkeys rock.”

“Only one big cat--it’s a jaguar, it’s gorgeous--and no pandas. No koalas. Not even any bears,” she said apologetically.

“Well, there’ll be one there today,” he said, taking her arm gallantly and enjoying her giggle.

It was a pretty small zoo, but that suited him just fine. Bayley tugged him from exhibit to exhibit, and they watched the placid capybaras, the flamingos wading quietly in the little pond, the jaguar sulking in the shade and glaring at them with glowing golden eyes. Bayley got the giggles standing in front of the macaw cage, watching the bright birds squawking and preening, but wouldn’t say why. Kevin knew why--it was because they reminded her of Enzo and Cass--but they had an unspoken agreement to never compare the animals to their co-workers. If they started with that, they’d have to admit that the ramrod-straight meerkats with their sharp eyes reminded them of Finn, for example. He paused in front of the cage with the red ruffed lemur, which contemplated him for a long time, its head tilted to the side as it chewed slowly on a piece of orange. Its auburn hair gleamed in the sun, and for no good reason Kevin found himself putting out a hand to it.

“Hey,” he said.

The lemur dropped the orange slice and shrieked at him in alarm before retreating hastily.

“Hey.” He felt Bayley loop her arm through his again and tug him gently away from the cage. “Let’s go look at the goats.”

Watching the goats and the miniature horses kick at each other and run around in the sun made him feel better--not that he’d been feeling bad or anything. He bought them both a drink and they sat down on a bench, watching the people go by and enjoying the distant calls of the macaws, the dusty smell of the horses, and not thinking about wrestling or feuds or championship belts at all.

He took her drink and went to drop it in the waste bin; as he turned to come back he heard a small child’s voice shriek with delight and realized that there were about five kids gathered around Bayley. Kevin faded into the shade and became background--you’d think that would be difficult, but it was surprisingly easy to blend in. Just a little shift in posture, just a bit of a drop of the eyes, and you’re not NXT champ anymore. You’re just some loser schmoe killing time at the zoo.

Someone like Bayley, now--she had to work to _not_ be noticed, Kevin thought as he watched her signing autographs, laughing, handing out the bracelets she always carried with her just in case. Unless she did the extra work, she… _shone._

Kevin watched her as she shone, wondering why she bothered to come to the zoo with _him_ of all people. If anyone found out, it could really fuck up her reputation. Her friendships with… with other wrestlers. It didn’t seem worth the risk to Kevin when she could probably go to the zoo with anyone.

He asked her once and she said “Because you like zoos. You light up around the animals. You’re...fun to be with at a zoo.” Which was pretty ridiculous. That stupid lemur hadn’t found him very fun. “I oughtta go back and powerbomb his ass, teach him to show his teeth to me,” he muttered, and immediately felt ludicrous. Who the fuck would even think of powerbombing a lemur? I mean, how would you even go about it? He paused and imagined the logistics of lemur-powerbombs and concluded it would probably just climb him like a particularly wide tree. So a powerbomb was out. Maybe a sharpshooter? No, those tiny little legs would be a nightmare. And how would you work the tail?

He thought about it some more and decided really the only option would be a moonsault. He imagined himself climbing the cage, executing a perfect moonsault onto the startled lemur. _Bam._ That would work. Good ol’ moonsault, it never let you down.

The kids eventually dispersed, and Bayley loped over to him, laughing and apologetic. 

“Gotta go with the moonsault on a lemur,” Kevin informed her as she drew near.

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” she said. Then she laughed, looking back at the kids. “They asked if I was going to be in Wrestlemania! Can you believe it?”

“You will be someday,” he said.

“We both will be.” Bayley threw out her arms and twirled. “We all will be! It’ll be beautiful!” Somehow her motion seemed to include all of NXT, all of San Jose, all of the world. Even Kevin, who neither shone nor was beautiful in any way. “It’ll be beautiful,” she sighed, her eyes bright.

Kevin, who had had an interesting conversation with Triple H just the day before, smiled at her. “You’ll light it up,” he said. “I can’t wait to see it.”

She took his arm again. “Let me show you the fossa,” she said.

“I think you could do a sharpshooter on a fossa,” Kevin said. “They’re big enough. Not like a lemur.”

“What?” Bayley started laughing and swung from his arm a bit. “Kev, you’re weird.”

Kevin walked with her in the warm San Jose sun, the weekend before Wrestlemania 31, and knew that the only thing he’d miss when he finally shook the dust of NXT off his boots was days like this.


End file.
